Thegatewaynews.com - C.C. saga highlights everything that's wrong with baseball

Blasting Post

by Michael Leonard
Sports Editor

I thought about having a conversation with my inner fan over the C.C. Sabathia trade, but I'm quite certain his sentiments would not be printable in this publication.

Even the rational side of my sports brain is not happy, though, and with good reason.

I'm not mad at Indians general manager Mark Shapiro or any member of the front office -- save perhaps Larry Dolan -- for making this trade. Shapiro did what he had to do in a very bad situation.

That situation is simple. By continuing to allow a system of unrestrained spending, Major League Baseball all but disqualifies two-thirds of its franchises from having a legitimate shot at consistent winning.

That's the politically correct version. Here's the blunt version:

BASEBALL NEEDS A SALARY CAP!

Had to let my inner fan out there because, frankly, there's no polite way to put it.

Either baseball needs to follow the lead of just about every other professional sports organization in North America or it will continue to imply what many who follow baseball in the heartland fear.

Namely, if something in baseball happens outside of New York, Boston, Chicago or California, it doesn't really matter.

Baseball's current salary "structure" -- also known as anything goes -- turns every personnel decision into a socioeconomic commentary on each team's market size.

Year after year, the same baseball teams seem to be favored to reach the playoffs. Can anyone remember the last time the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Angels weren't regarded as having at least a 50/50 chance of making the playoffs?

It's enough to make an Indians fan pine for the days of the reserve clause. Of course that wouldn't work either, because the Yankees and Red Sox would then pour all their money into signing all the best players by the time they left kindergarten.

Yes, teams like the Indians can make playoff runs. But Mark Shapiro himself admits the Indians' player personnel decisions have a very small margin for error if runs are possible.

If the Yankees or Red Sox make a personnel mistake, big deal -- they've got the money to outspend their mistakes.

That's why the Indians had no choice but to trade Sabathia or risk getting nothing for him the way they did with Manny Ramirez or Jim Thome.

The fact it made sense doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

Oh, by the way, the chance of Sabathia staying in Milwaukee past November is virtually nil. The Brewers are in the same socioeconomic position as the Tribe. They're trying to make their one big run this season -- right before some big market team makes Sabathia the richest pitcher in baseball history.

Tell me, what other sport is there where a player rejects an $18 million a year contract, as Sabathia reportedly did in offseason, because such a price might be below market value?

Thanks to the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants for helping Sabathia out of Cleveland, by the way. How can anyone justify giving upwards of $125 million to a pitcher like Barry Zito or Johan Santana?

Because Sabathia is younger and better than both of these pitchers, he could be looking to become baseball's first $20 million a year pitcher.

You can count on one hand the number of teams with those kind of resources.

My worst nightmare is seeing Sabathia in a Yankees uniform, yet who else could make such a salary splash -- and shrug because that would make Sabathia only the third highest paid player on the team?

Of course, no one in baseball's offices (located in New York) seems too worried about escalating salaries.

When ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian came on local radio to address the trade, he nailed the situation perfectly by saying "It's not fair to Indians fans, but there's not much they can do about it."

A rough translation from a New York/Boston perspective: "Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah! We're richer than you are!"

And they wonder why Northeast Ohio fans get angry sometimes.

E-mail: mleonard@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3113